They’re everywhere. You can get them organising a home loan, buying insurance, shopping for groceries and making a phone call.

It seems Australians’ attraction to frequent flyer points knows no bounds. A staggering 9.4 million of us are members of
Qantas
’s Frequent Flyer program – that’s one-third of the entire population – while
Virgin
’s Velocity program boasts 3.7 million members.

And the opportunities to earn points keep expanding. In recent months Qantas’s program, which includes hundreds of partners such as Woolworths and Optus, added online insurance comparison group iSelect to its stable and announced home buyers who took a mortgage with Macquarie Bank could also earn points.

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According to the Qantas annual report, users of its frequent flyer program redeemed 5.6 million awards in 2012-13, up 10 per cent on the previous corresponding period. But the frequent flyer division (recently renamed Qantas Loyalty) also posted a record result in last financial year, with underlying earnings before interest and tax of $260 million. It was one of the airline’s biggest profit engines.

Steve Hui is the founder if iFLYflat, a membership-based service that helps SME business owners, frequent flyers and executives maximise their points. He says even the most regular business travellers are typically more focused on improving their status – moving from a “silver" membership of a frequent flyer program to “gold" for example – to get lounge entry or priority boarding, than using their points to claim rewards.

“Points are secondary for many people, and they don’t usually think of how credit card points feed into frequent flyers points either," the Sydney-based entrepreneur says. And while it’s true that rules and processes around frequent flyer programs can be complex, there are a few key ways to engage with those dormant points.

Hui likes to start his new clients off by getting them to think that every point is worth 1¢. “Then you can start thinking about what one million points or 1,000,000¢ can get to you." That’s step one. Step two is realising that how you use you points greatly affects how much value they create.

For example, Hui says buying consumer goods from the online store of a frequent flyer program often means you’ll get less than 1¢ per point, because the prices are so inflated. But smart buying of flights can mean one point can be worth as much as 8¢. “For me, buying flights is the bee’s knees," he says.

Keith Mason, the founder of Australian website Points Hack, says ‘relative value’ is another important concept. “The biggest mistake that can be made when using your points is to use them without considering their relative value. Emptying your account at the earliest opportunity and saving a couple of hundred dollars on a domestic flight might feel like a win, but saving for longer and using them to travel in a way in which you couldn’t otherwise afford [is better value]."

One way to focus your points accumulation and spending efforts is pick a specific travel goal to work towards. Hui recommends choosing a destination and a class (economy, business, first) and then working out how many points (and real dollars) that will cost. “In a way, that’s like your financial goal. Every transaction that you do, or every credit card you choose to spend through, that contributes to your goal." Mason’s advice is to aim for the front of the plane. “There’s simple maths at play here – usually the cost of business class tickets in points say, for Velocity or Qantas Frequent Flyer, is twice that of economy, whereas in cash, it can be many multiples more."

While most Australian travellers are members of the Qantas frequent flyer programs, fewer take advantage of the programs offered by international carriers. That’s a mistake, Hui says. Depending on your destinations and travel patterns, generous rewards can be accessed by becoming a member of foreign carrier programs.

While Hui offers a paid service to help flyers optimise their points, there are numerous free resources online to help navigate the frequent flyer world and spot great deals. Australian Business Traveller has extensive resources for following changes in the sector, while the Australian Frequent Flyer Online Community has extensive forums where points hunters can chat and solve problems. Australian/Canadian business, Flightfox, provides a different model; it is an online platform where travel experts compete to find users the best deals.

Hui says a common mistake travellers make is to think only about accumulating points for their next trip, rather than considering the fact they will probably travel each year. This is where building points across different frequent flyer programs can be beneficial.